The photography internship arrives in Sand Rivers

Sand Rivers was home to our second photography internship towards the end of 2018, and we were so excited to have them to stay. Have a read through Hans' report to hear how it went.

We began the program this time by jumping straight into a morning of photography, to assess the starting level of our intern, Eliya. Eliya had some experience in taking wildlife photos, but mostly using automatic settings. In the afternoon, an ‘Introduction to Photography’ presentation was given by Vanessa. Photography basics were taught, such as the uses and functions of the exposure triangle (ISO, aperture, and shutter speed). Additionally, composition, and the ‘rule of thirds’ were covered, as were some wildlife photography tips (e.g. shoot at eye level for a more interesting photograph). This was followed by camera equipment training and a practical workshop with photo assignments around the camp delivered by Hans.

Every morning we woke up at 5am so that we were able to catch the sunrise and magical morning light. Selous Game Reserve had a wide diversity of habitats and wildlife for us to hone our skills upon. We went on six game drives, three river safaris, fly camping along the river, and made a trip to some hot springs. When we weren’t out taking photographs of wildlife and landscapes, we were practicing our camp photography. We also held special practicals on macro photography with the camp manager Michelle, and night photography. Another crucial feature of photography is the post-production phase.

We taught Eliya how to sort, edit and develop his photographs in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop for their final touches. Photograph developing techniques were taught, such as exposure, contrast, temperature, clarity etc., using RAW images. Eliya was a great intern. He was a fast learner, very keen, enthusiastic, and passionate about wildlife. We have high hopes for his future. Overall, this was an outstanding trip.

The wildlife was spectacular and plentiful, the scenery was just awesome (in the truest sense of the word), and the camp was heaven on Earth. But even most notably, the staff at Nomad were all so amazing, always going above and beyond every moment. We really felt so welcomed and taken care of; we all are overwhelmingly grateful for this experience. Looking forward to our next internship week! This photography internship program is already inspiring so many young photographers around the country, as we have gotten a lot inquires towards the program and many responses to photographs shared from our expeditions. We hope to continue developing and expanding as this program continues. Our additions this time around were a formal presentation for an introduction to photography and we also managed to add video into the agenda, so that we could capture the behind the scenes of this unique program.